Led Kaapana

The sound of the tropics

In Hawaii, the slack-key, or kî hôalu, acoustic guitar technique is a family style, music you play with your friends sitting around the backyard and at house partiesa less public and touristy style, maybe, than slide guitar or ukulele music. In kî hôalu, some of the guitar strings are tuned down from the standard E-A-D-G-B-E. There are many such re-tunings, some used only by particular players (and kept secret). In the most popular tunings, the strings, strummed by themselves unfingered, make a pure, sweet major chord. Musicians have speculated for centuries about the ways a countrys music reflects its character, and of course it does, if you stick to generalizations: German music is serious and heavy, Italian music is tuneful and not too complicated, etc. But maybe theres some deeper cause and effect between Hawaiis famously laid-back island culture and slack-key playing: The de-tightened strings make the instrument soundlike Hawaiians themselves, you might saysofter, mellower, and literally looser. Led Kaapana is one of the masters of this style, a musician whos played with Alison Krauss, Chet Atkins, and Dolly Parton, among others. Hell perform, with Mike Kaawa to open, at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., http:kbcs.fm. $12-$15. 8 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT